When using disposable bags, it is usually difficult to perform other simultaneous functions while trying to keep the mouth of the bag open. Without containers or stands to serve as scaffolds, the current unstructured mouth openings of polymeric and other commercially available bags collapse while performing tasks such as collecting waste, raking leaves and picking up trash and recycling. When one attempts to load the bag with contents (such as leaves, refuse, debris, recyclables and other objects), some contents may miss the bag opening and end up on the ground or floor. This process is frustrating in that it requires duplicate efforts along with potential physical discomfort incurred by bending, lifting and carrying the objects for disposal in the bag as well as transport of the bag itself to a disposal bin, recycling bin or comparable receptacle (collectively “disposal bins”).
One solution is to simply use one hand for placing the debris into the bag while using the other hand to hold the bag open. This may not be an effective approach when the bag is empty, as two hands are often required to hold the bag open. Consequently, if only a small handful of contents may be lifted and placed in the bag at one time, the job will take much longer than if both hands could be used. To prevent objects from dropping back to the floor or ground, some people will hold the bag in a horizontal position, rather than vertically upright. In this position, the bag mouth generally does not stay open, making it difficult to also sweep or rake objects into the bag. Again, the solution is generally to hold the bag open with one hand while sweeping or raking with the other hand. Using the bag in this manner can be very inefficient, since users are constantly stopping to try to hold the bag open with one hand and loading the bag with the other.
Various attempts have been made to provide portable devices that are workable with a single hand and that hold bags open in at least a partially open position, particularly during the performance of tasks that require incorporation of contents into the bags for eventual transport and/or disposal. U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,549 to Lowery provides an example of a bag mouth holder that includes a frame having longitudinally spaced clamps for releasably clamping portions of a bag mouth extending through the frame. The frame includes an elongate handle and support foot structure so that the frame may be positioned on the ground in a freely upstanding position with the bag opening in a horizontal direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,519 to Cheng provides another example of a portable bag mouth holder in which a generally rectangular frame is provided with a handle selectively attached thereto. One side of the frame has leg means to support the frame in an upright standing position, and opposing side portions of the frame are adjustable lengthwise to accommodate bags of various sizes. Clip elements are provided near the frame's four corners for attaching the bags to the frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,645 to Chang also provides an example of a portable bag mouth holder that includes a rigid frame with a pair of parallel side bars having a handle at one end. Free ends of the side bars are mounted to a lower supporting platform bar. A slider bar is slidably mounted on the side bars and located between the handle and the lower supporting platform bar. Both the slider bar and the supporting platform bar have a horizontal U-shaped channel. A flexible bag can be mounted to the device by wrapping two opposite sides of the bag's lip portion on two securement bars and inserting the wrapped securement bars into the U-shaped channels, thereby securing the bag to the device. The slide is pushed upward to maintain the bag in an open position and may be adjusted to accommodate bags of different sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,011,278 to Baldwin, III provides an additional example of a portable bag mouth holder in which parallel handles are gripped and squeezed together in one hand, thereby compressing a spring and repositioning a small section of frame near a large frame loop. While the handles are gripped, the loop is placed within the mouth of a bag, and the top of the mouth of the bag is placed over the small frame with the other hand. Releasing the handles correspondingly releases compression from the spring and moves the small frame away from the frame loop. The mouth of the bag is thereby tensioned around the large loop and the small frame to maintain the mouth of the bag in an open position.
Despite these known methods and devices, a need persisted for improved bag holders that avoid inherent disadvantages in the prior art in facilitating one-handed operation of a bag holder while maintaining a disposable bag in at least a partially open position. This need was initially addressed by providing a portable bag holder that maintains the mouth of a bag in an at least partial open position to receive contents therein, as disclosed in U.S. patent application publication 20110147545. The present invention provides additional attributes over the prior application by providing a portable bag holder and kit for use with one hand during execution of a variety of tasks.